As of 01 January 2018 I am officially a Major in the United States Army. The transition from company grade officer to the field grades is a pretty big deal. They don't just hand that oak leaf cluster out to anybody and this secures my retirement. Damn its good to be a gangsta.

Anyone checking out last year's chuff thread will note that it was just about this time then that the Army had told me I was selected for promotion. So did I spend an entire year waiting for the promotion they'd told me I'd earned? Yes, you're damn right I did. Slow and steady but she keeps rolling along.

Found out today that my old boss will be able to come and promote me this month. Was planning on waiting until he could make it to this area in March but I'll be pinning much sooner so yeah!

Keeping the hits rolling, I just got in some new tabletop games for the boys and me to dig into. Zombie dice is easy fun and King of Tokyo is going to be occupying a lot of our time. I'm an avid tabletop gamer but haven't added to the collection in quite a while.

I have a lot to be chuffed about so far this year.. Moved into the new house, got to take 2 weeks of my unused vacation that I was going to lose, my workload at the office dropped dramatically for a bit, and I have been able to get most of my new workshop in order and ready for the new project: the new home theater.

Before I moved in I got the heaters mounted and hooked up (40k btu gas in both garages), and I pre-wired the shop for music from the whole house audio system and got that all set up and running a few weeks ago. I had the electrician put in a bunch of outlets as well as a couple 240v outlets, and I have a whole 100a box just for the shop if I want to expand that. I spent a few days last week while on vacation building the workbench, wiring the compressor and dust collection (converted a 50A outlet to 2 20A outlets), running the dust collection lines and setting up the remote blast gates, getting the dust filtration and air hose mounted on the ceiling, upgrading lighting, building a lot of shelving, and even doing some unpacking and organizing. I still have 6 crates of tools and stuff to unpack, some cleanup to do, a little more wiring, some more shelving, storage for sheet wood, and a ton of shelves in the main garage to build, but I have 90% of the work done and the shop is functional. Got music, air, dust control, heat, about 50k lumens of light, and power.

Steal one of the gallon jugs of wine from your gas station. After you've finished the wine, melt 2 pounds of brown sugar into 3 and a half quarts of apple juice. Toss in 3 cinnamon sticks. 50 cents packet of bread yeast from the grocery store. Put a balloon over the neck of the bottle, poke a small hole in it. In two weeks, you'll be drinking your own hooch.

Steal one of the gallon jugs of wine from your gas station. After you've finished the wine, melt 2 pounds of brown sugar into 3 and a half quarts of apple juice. Toss in 3 cinnamon sticks. 50 cents packet of bread yeast from the grocery store. Put a balloon over the neck of the bottle, poke a small hole in it. In two weeks, you'll be drinking your own hooch.

After doing a 3 hour daily driving commute for just over a year and a half, my wife and I decided to become suburbanites and reduce my commute drastically. We now reside a 15 mins walk from my work. Quality of life just skyrocketed, and this is the closest Iíve ever lived to my place of employment. Iím super chuffed about getting a big portion of my life back!

Add a shot of vodka to an Angry Orchard and you've basically replicated it. I did finally pick up a hydrometer so I can measure the alcohol content. I'm not sure how that's going to end up.. I'm guessing either 3% or 15%. I seem to be able to slam a lot of it without getting too wobbly or regretting it the next day. But sure, why not, if I end up coming I'll toss a plastic bottle in my checked bag.

After doing a 3 hour daily driving commute for just over a year and a half, my wife and I decided to become suburbanites and reduce my commute drastically. We now reside a 15 mins walk from my work. Quality of life just skyrocketed, and this is the closest Iíve ever lived to my place of employment. Iím super chuffed about getting a big portion of my life back!

After doing a 3 hour daily driving commute for just over a year and a half, my wife and I decided to become suburbanites and reduce my commute drastically. We now reside a 15 mins walk from my work. Quality of life just skyrocketed, and this is the closest Iíve ever lived to my place of employment. Iím super chuffed about getting a big portion of my life back!

Congrats!

My new place is 2 min. drive from the office, but in a city you can get anywhere in 10-15 mins it isn't an extreme upgrade for me, but damn it is nice leaving for work at 7:55 and getting here with time to spare.. I could walk it in about 10 minutes, but the reality is I won't.

I would sooner shoot myself than have a 3 hour commute.. Unless I was making about a half mil a year, then it might be worth it... for a few years anyway.

That's not a workshop. There isn't sawdust or tools or various parts thrown all over the place from the 8 projects you are working on at the same time.

lol, this is the "clean" picture with only about 15% of my stuff unpacked and most of the sawdust either in the dust collection bag or swept into a pile already. Give it a few weeks when I am full swing into the new theater and 18 sheets of MDF into building backer boxes and subwoofer enclosures... Each of the 6 subs will take 2 4x8 sheets each... I figure if I start really clean and organized I can make it a few weeks before I injure myself tripping over tools, scrap wood, and half built enclosures...

BTW, I already regret not spending more and pushing the wall out further. This is 18'x22' and I wish I had gone for at least 22'x22' now. I will build a shed on the other side of the wall in the summer though, and move the compressor and dust collection to it, freeing up a corner and a TON of noise...

Add a shot of vodka to an Angry Orchard and you've basically replicated it. I did finally pick up a hydrometer so I can measure the alcohol content. I'm not sure how that's going to end up.. I'm guessing either 3% or 15%. I seem to be able to slam a lot of it without getting too wobbly or regretting it the next day. But sure, why not, if I end up coming I'll toss a plastic bottle in my checked bag.

After doing a 3 hour daily driving commute for just over a year and a half, my wife and I decided to become suburbanites and reduce my commute drastically. We now reside a 15 mins walk from my work. Quality of life just skyrocketed, and this is the closest Iíve ever lived to my place of employment. Iím super chuffed about getting a big portion of my life back!

Congrats!

My new place is 2 min. drive from the office, but in a city you can get anywhere in 10-15 mins it isn't an extreme upgrade for me, but damn it is nice leaving for work at 7:55 and getting here with time to spare.. I could walk it in about 10 minutes, but the reality is I won't.

I would sooner shoot myself than have a 3 hour commute.. Unless I was making about a half mil a year, then it might be worth it... for a few years anyway.

Believe me I almost did shoot myself from that commute. It was definitely weighing heavy on our lives: a huge waste of time away from family and projects, a massive level of stress increase, and lots of money on gas let alone the mileage wear on our vehicle.

Believe me I almost did shoot myself from that commute. It was definitely weighing heavy on our lives: a huge waste of time away from family and projects, a massive level of stress increase, and lots of money on gas let alone the mileage wear on our vehicle.

I can imagine the gas was insane... The apartment I was living in while building the new house is just 3 miles from work and I was filling up every 12-14 days. I gassed up 2 weeks ago and still have over half a tank right now. More than half that fuel was used to go to Home Depot and Lowes over the last couple weeks. I don't think I have driven further than 2 miles from home/work since Christmas. It is so nice...

Not at all. We actually reduced our rent by 45% and Iím not spending $100 a week on gas anymore. San Franciscoís housing is absolutely ludicrous. Weíre happy to be in the cleaner, cheaper, safer area in Silicon Valley now.

Takes me an hour to drive 8 miles. And that's off peak traffic. It's unbelievable. If I was in better shape I'd bike it - the trail runs 2 blocks from my house, but there are some crazy dangerous intersections on the route. Then I park a mile from my office and either hoof it across multiple six lane streets... or wait 20 minutes for a shuttle.

Not at all. We actually reduced our rent by 45% and Iím not spending $100 a week on gas anymore. San Franciscoís housing is absolutely ludicrous. Weíre happy to be in the cleaner, cheaper, safer area in Silicon Valley now.

Wow interesting. I would have thought that getting closer to Silicon Valley would have been more expensive.

Not at all. We actually reduced our rent by 45% and Iím not spending $100 a week on gas anymore. San Franciscoís housing is absolutely ludicrous. Weíre happy to be in the cleaner, cheaper, safer area in Silicon Valley now.

Wow interesting. I would have thought that getting closer to Silicon Valley would have been more expensive.

Donít get me wrong, itís still expensive in the Bay Area, but at least in Silicon Valley itís just regular expensive rather than trust-fund-baby expensive. Plus you get more bang for the buck here. We upgraded our living space by 30% along with paying 45% less.

We pay $1,450/mo for 2,600 sq ft. It feels high but.... hey.. I only hear gunshots 2-3 times a month.

I'm only on the fringe of the SF Bay area and $1450/mo will get you a studio or if lucky a 1 bd room. ~500 sq/ft maybe. It's $3K+ for 2600 sq ft.

It's kind of the opposite here.. I was paying $1700/mo for a 1300 sq ft apartment on the edge of town in a desirable location (high for this city). I could find a similar apartment downtown for around $700/mo. But living downtown here is living in the slums. My new place only costs me $1400/mo for 3900 sq ft., but I had to put down my life savings to get it down to that. My last house was costing me $1k/mo for ~2300 sq ft. I could have rented that old house out for around $1800/mo if I had kept it, but it was 50 years old and despite a full renovation and tons of upgrades, it had 50 year old house problems that I got sick of dealing with.

Hey LeChuck congrats on the promotion to Major. What division of the army are you in? I had a buddy who got promoted to Colonel recently in the EOD division. But I remember when he got promoted to Major, it was a big deal.

As for the commute topic, I can relate too. For 17 years, I commuted for over an hour each way to work, before finally deciding 6 years ago to move closer. I spent tons of $$ on tolls and gas, not to mention mileage on car. Sure it was cheaper for the house, but the other expenses to commute negated that. Plus I spent a lot of time travelling.

Now I'm now only a 10 minute drive to my job. The rent prices are pretty high here, but I don't spend money on gas and tolls and such and I actually get to have more time with my family (and the hobby). Eventually I bought my place (2 years ago) and I pay about $1,100 mortgage for 2,048 square feet. That's saying a lot (in CT where it's damn expensive to live) since I could easily rent my place out for $3,000 a month since I'm near everything and only a short train ride to Manhattan. The only downside is I don't have a garage to work on my games. But I do have a backyard - It's just a pain to move everything outside all the time. But in 2 years, I'm going to buy a house with a garage and pay the mortgage with the rent I'm getting from this place.

Lastly, I'm super chuffed that USA Today is coming over today with a film crew to shoot a story on how my fiancee survived post-partum pre-eclampsia that led to a brain aneurism in the summer of 2016 (shortly after giving birth to our daughter). She is 100% recovered and doctors are stumped on how she not only survived, but made a full recovery without any side effects.

All in all, I'm thankful every day for what I have. And I'm feeling chuffed in the new year.

I donít know if I should blame Trump and his associated drama or Hurricane Harvey but this year has been a dud on the party front thus far. Our New Years party was down by half and people were antisocial. I went to an annual pinball party last night at a huge private collection - crowd was much smaller and kept to themselves. Iíve talked to other friends in the surrounding area and theyíre reporting similar.

However, it is warm enough in Houston that Iím tanning my flab right now, so it ainít all bad. Enjoy your igloos, snow bitches.

Necro-ing my old account and coming back into the hobby after several years away from my cabs. Last time I was working on my games was mid-2011, while I was in the summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college. Since then, my cabs were moved and stored, went through a 6 inch flood, and moved again. They need a fair amount of TLC, but nothing I hadn't already done once before!

Since those last posts around here, I've graduated, switched jobs twice within my field of choice into a comfortable wage, gotten engaged to my girlfriend of nearly 7 years, adopted a dog, and am actively working on sealing the deal on a house down the street with plenty of room to re-restore and rebuild my basement arcade! I've got a soft promise of a promotion this year and an IOU from the fiance for one pin with a value similar to her engagement ring

Weird to be back - I wasn't terribly social, but I definitely knew some names and faces around the forum. The majority of my posts and restores were from high school! Feels like a lifetime ago, but I'm really excited to get back into this. Nice to see that this place is still alive and healthy!

« Last Edit: January 14, 2018, 09:59:23 pm by Mauzy »

Logged

"Son, all hobbies suck. But if you keep at it, you might find you managed to kill some precious time."

Just found out that Hakko is donating a brand new FR-300 desoldering tool to me for my Youtube channel. Been working hard and talking to their marketing department the last couple of weeks trying to get them to sponsor it.